On this day: November 25

2008: Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleads guilty to a Virginia dogfighting charge and receives a three-year suspended sentence. Vick had previously been sentenced to 23 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges in connection with bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed. He would serve 21 months in prison, followed by two months in home confinement, before being released.

2002: President George W. Bush signs legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security. It was intended to consolidate U.S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single cabinet agency.

1999: Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez is rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida. Gonzalez, his mother, and 12 others had left Cuba on a small aluminum boat with a faulty engine, but Gonzalez's mother and 10 others died in the crossing. Federal officials initially placed the boy with paternal relatives in Miami. Those relatives sought to keep him in the U.S. against his father's wishes that he be returned to Cuba, but a series of court decisions went against their petition for asylum on his behalf. After he was seized by federal agents on April 22, 2000, he was returned to Cuba in June 2000.

1998: Actor and comedian Flip Wilson, best known for his Emmy and Golden Globe-winning 1970s variety series "The Flip Wilson Show," dies of liver cancer at age 64 in Malibu, California.

1998: The Disney-Pixar animated movie "A Bug's Life" opens in theaters. The film grossed more than $33 million to top the box office its first weekend, a spot it would hold for two weeks. It would eventually make a total of $363.3 million worldwide.

1997: Rapper Tupac Shakur's sixth album, "R U Still Down? (Remember Me)," is released posthumously. It was his second posthumous album and the first to be finished without his creative input. It spawned two hits, "Do for Love" and "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto," and reached multi-platinum status, eventually selling more than two million copies.

1997: Garth Brooks releases his seventh album "Sevens." The album would debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and on the Top Country Albums chart. Brooks' duet with Trisha Yearwood, "In Another's Eyes," would win the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the Grammy Awards of 1998.

1992: The Disney animated movie "Aladdin" opens in theaters, grossing $19.2 million in its opening weekend to premiere at No. 2 at the box office, behind "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." It would rise to No. 1 over the course of eight weeks, eventually breaking the record for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve with $32.2 million. It would become the most successful film of 1992, earning $217 million in the United States and $504 million worldwide, representing the biggest gross for an animated film until "The Lion King" was released two years later.

1986: During the Iran-Contra affair, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese admits that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. On that same day, National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and National Security Council staff member Oliver North was fired by President Ronald Reagan. Here Reagan meets with (left to right) Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz, Meese, and Chief of Staff Don Regan in the Oval Office.

1984: A group of 36 top musicians assembled by Bob Geldof gather in a London, England, studio to record Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Among the participants were Phil Collins, Bono, George Michael, Sting, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Boy George. The song would become the biggest selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone and staying at No. 1 for five weeks.

1981: Actor Jack Albertson, best known for movies such as "The Poseidon Adventure," "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" and "The Fox and the Hound," and the sitcom "Chico and the Man," dies of colorectal cancer at age 74 in Hollywood, California.

1981: Barbara Pierce Bush (left) and Jenna Welch Bush (right), the twin daughters of President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush (center), are born in Dallas, Texas.

1976: At the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, the original lineup of The Band plays their last concert, which is filmed by Martin Scorsese and would be released as the classic concert movie "The Last Waltz." Guest performers included Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison and Neil Young.

1974: British singer-songwriter and musician Nick Drake dies from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 26 in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, England. Whether his death was an accident or suicide has never been resolved. Drake failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime but his work has gained wider notice and recognition since his death. He's seen here on the cover of his 1970 album "Bryter Layter."

1971: Actress Christina Applegate, best known for the TV series "Married… With Children" and "Samantha Who?" and movies such as "Anchorman," "The Sweetest Thing" and "Hall Pass," is born in Hollywood, California.

1968: American author Upton Sinclair, best known for the muckraking novel "The Jungle" and as a passionate crusader for social reform, dies at age 90 in Bound Brook, New Jersey.

1968: Actress Jill Hennessy, best known for her roles on the TV series "Law & Order" and "Crossing Jordan," is born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

1965: Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter, an eight-time Pro Bowler who played most of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, is born in Troy, Ohio. Carter began his season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1987 but was let go in 1989, mostly due to off-the-field issues. He signed with the Vikings in 1989 and revived his career. He played with the Vikings until after the 2001 season and then briefly played with the Miami Dolphins before retiring in 2002 with 13,899 career receptions and 130 career touchdowns.

1963: President John F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery three days after his assassination in Dallas, Texas. At the funeral, which took place on the third birthday for Kennedy's son, John F. Kennedy Jr., the younger Kennedy stepped forward and rendered a final salute as his father's flag-draped casket was carried from St. Matthew's Cathedral, creating an iconic image of the 1960s.

1960 The final "Amos 'n' Andy" radio show is broadcast. Shown here are the show's creators, Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, white men who played two black men from the Deep South who moved to Chicago to seek their fortunes. By the time of its cancellation, the format of the show had changed to a daily half-hour show that also included recorded music between sketches and had been renamed "The Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall." Throughout the show's run, both on radio and television, it was a frequent target of criticism for promoting racial stereotypes.

1960: Singer Amy Grant, one of the best-selling contemporary Christian music singer ever, is born in Augusta, Georgia. Grant is also known for the crossover success of such pop hits as "Baby Baby," "Every Heartbeat" and "The Next Time I Fall."

1960: John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, is born in Washington, D.C. Kennedy, who was born 17 days after his father was elected to the presidency and is seen here with his father in October 1963, went on to become a socialite, journalist, lawyer and magazine publisher, co-founding George Magazine. He died at age 38 in a plane crash along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her older sister Lauren Bessette on July 16, 1999.

1951: Author Charlaine Harris, best known for "The Sookie Stackhouse Novels" series that served as the basis for the HBO series "True Blood," is born in Tunica, Mississippi.

1950: The Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950, known at the time as the "Storm of the Century," strikes the eastern United States, killing 353, injuring more than 160, and causing $66.7 million in damage. The Northeast was hit especially hard, with hurricane force winds resulting in massive forest blow-downs and storm surge causing damage, including in New York City. The storm also brought blizzard conditions to the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio Valley, becoming one of the worst storms of all time.

1947: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios the day after the writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Shown are nine of the men: (from left) Robert Adrian Scott, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Ornitz, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Alvah Bessie, John Howard Lawson and Ring Lardner Jr. Not shown is screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

1947: Actor John Larroquette, best known for the sitcoms "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show," is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1944: Actor, lawyer and author Ben Stein, who first rose to fame as a speechwriter for U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, is born in Washington, D.C. Stein has become better known for his acting career, including a role in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and on the game show "Win Ben Stein's Money."

1941: R&B and soul singer Percy Sledge, best known for the 1966 No. 1 hit "When a Man Loves a Woman," is born in Leighton, Alabama.

1940: Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs is born in Mocksville, North Carolina. During his first stint as a NFL coach with Washington from 1981 to 1992, Gibbs led the team to eight playoff appearances, four NFC Championship titles and three Super Bowl titles. He initially retired at the end of the 1992 season to focus on his NASCAR team, Joe Gibbs Racing, but returned as Washington's head coach from 2004 to 2007. His racing team has won three championships, one with former driver Bobby Labonte and two with Tony Stewart.

1937: The world's fair of Paris closes with a final attendance of 31.2 million visitors. The fair, most notable for the competing German and Soviet pavilions built directly across from each other, was formally known as the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, or the International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life.

1926: The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history strikes on Thanksgiving Day. Nearly 30 strong tornadoes were reported in the Midwest, including the strongest November tornado, an estimated F4, that devastated Heber Springs, Arkansas. The storms killed 51 in Arkansas alone and left 76 people dead and another 400 injured overall.

1920: Actor Ricardo Montalbán, best known for playing Mr. Roarke on the TV show "Fantasy Island," and the "Star Trek" villain Khan Noonien Singh, is born in Mexico City. He died of congestive heart failure at the age of 88 on Jan. 14, 2009.

1914: Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, who only played for the New York Yankees during his 13-year career and is best known for his 56-game hitting streak during the 1941 season, is born in Martinez, California. Joining the Yankees in 1936, he would help the team to World Series titles in each of his first four seasons with them and add five more championships before he retired in 1951. He died of lung cancer at the age of 84 on March 8, 1999.

1909: Children's book author and illustrator P. D. Eastman, a protege of Dr. Seuss who wrote books such as "Are You My Mother?," "Go, Dog. Go!," "Big Dog... Little Dog" and "Red Stop! Green Go!," is born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Eastman died of pneumonia at the age of 76 on Jan. 7, 1986.

1902: Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Eddie Shore is born in Fort Qu'Appelle, Northwest Territories, Canada. Shore, who played the majority of his career with the NHL's Boston Bruins, won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player four times, the most of any defenseman. Only fellow Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have won it more often. He also was a part of two Stanley Cup championship teams with the Bruins, in 1928-29 and 1938-39. Shore was known for his toughness and violent style of play, setting a then-NHL record for 165 penalty minutes in his second season. He was also the longtime owner of the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League, and the Eddie Shore Award is given annually to the AHL's best defenseman in his honor. He died of a lung infection at age 82 on March 16, 1985.

1844: Karl Benz, the pioneering founder of automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and generally considered the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile, is born in Mühlburg, Germany.

1835: Andrew Carnegie, the businessman and philanthropist who founded the Carnegie Steel Company and led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century, is born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.

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